Toyota: Moving Forward...Entirely Too Fast

[Variance]

Toyota: Moving Forward...Entirely Too Fast

-Variance

July 18, 2006

As you may have heard today, yet another recall has been issued for Toyota vehicles. Over 400,000 vehicles worldwide were recalled for a faulty part that can cause an engine to cease functioning. 150,000 of the recalled were in overseas (outside of Japan) markets, predominantly in North America. Among the affected are the Corolla, Echo, and Prius.

Now normally, I don’t see a big deal in recalls; they happen to the best of companies and no one is immune to them. However, lately it seems Toyota has got recall SARS or botulism or something.

Toyota, Dude, What the F*ck Barbeque?

The above-mentioned recall is the latest in a series of recalls in the past weeks for Japan’s #1 automaker:

• July 12: 367,600 U.S. Highlander and Lexus RX SUVs to fix faulty clips that may cause a console panel to fall onto the accelerator.

• July 11: Scion tCs are under investigation to determine whether the full-length moonroof is prone to shattering.

• July 10: 160,000 Tundra pickups to deactivate passenger airbag cut-off switches instead of fitting LATCH child anchor systems to the seats.

And that’s only this month. They’ve had several others in 2006.

Number One is Taking a Number Two on Their Rep

As if the vehicle problems were not enough, there are questionable things going on within the Toyota corporation itself:

• The “fix” Toyota instituted in with the Tundra airbags drew a lot of flak. Many criticized Toyota for cheaping out on safety and caring more about the money than their customers.

• There was a report alleging Toyota’s failure to recall a sport-utility vehicle while knowing there was a problem. (Blurb in The Car Connection's “Daily Edition” for July 17, 2006.)

• You may have also caught The Japan Times' “A bumper-car experience in Toyota-land” which took a look at Darius Mehri’s “Notes from Toyota-Land”, which paints a not-so-pretty picture of Toyota’s (and Japan’s in general) management practices.

• And apparently, earlier in the year a panda was saddened.

It’s worth noting much of the sh*t hit the fan after Toyota chairman Hiroshi Okuda stepped down. It may be a complete coincidence. However, is it possible he saw this coming or is it that Toyota is starting to falter because Okuda isn’t at the helm?

Variance’s Final Thought

Toyota needs to calm the f*ck down.

Now it’s entirely possible Toyota is simply being more proactive in noting problems with their products and getting them fixed...or it just could be any combination of over-ambitiousness, laziness and/or sloppiness. Either way, this isn’t helping their image one bit (though there’s no indication [yet] that it’s hurting it that much either). Rather than striving to be number one in the world, they need to concentrate on being a good runner-up. If they can’t handle the problems they are having within themselves now, there’s no way they are ready to be the number one automaker in the world (nor do they deserve it).

Toyota, you need to handle your business, kid.

[tama z71]

Heh, good stuff man. I just hope that your article draws more intelligent responses than the usual "f*ck toyota!!" that tends to follow the mere mention of their name.

Edited July 19, 2006 by tama z71

[nzr]

Moving forward...all the way back to Japan.

[MRDETROITMETAL]

I have been saying that Toyopet has been moving forward straight to hell for years, THX for providing the Proof !!!

[Daryl Z71]

LMAO!................................

[carman21]

The best thing for Toyota to do is to pack up and go back to Japan!

[balthazar]

Heh, good stuff man. I just hope that your article draws more intelligent responses than the usual "f*ck toyota!!" that tends to follow the mere mention of their name.

I assumed your avatar was saying exactly that.

[RangerVT]

It really is about time someone brought this to the attention of the public. Toyota's quality has suffered as of late. Note the continual delay of the "All new Tundra" which has yet to be released. My personal opinion is they didn't want to get their truck handed back to them this year by the new Silverado and want to run for Motor Trend's 2008 Truck of the Year without competition. Did anyone else notice how quickly production delays stacked up once the new Silverado was released? Toyota knew they were going to lose in head-to-head comparisons!

All that being said, previous to these recent Recalls, Toyota had their own "internal recalls" that didn't get publicized since they were referred to as "Technical Service Bulletins" instead. While I have to give Toyota their "props" though for really waking up the Big 3 to step up their own quality. That quality gap has shrunk over the past decade, and the recent JD Power Quality studies will attest to that. They were the first to the Quality Party and have reaped the benefits of that perception. And like it or not, public perception is reality. Whether or not Toyota is still the quality leader, is tough to say. These recent stories tend to show otherwise and I believe their fast growth in a race to be #1 has delivered a major blow to this quality image.

[Sixty8panther]

LOL... this thead warms my heart.

[Variance]

Total non sequitur here:

I was just reading over some of my old work and patting myself on the back. I think I should have some new stuff up by new year's.

[eldiablobanshee]

:Toyota: :Toyota: :Toyota: :Toyota: :Toyota:

:smilies-38096:

[MRDETROITMETAL]

Now IF toypet was Really "Moving Forward"...we might see some stuff like this :

but no....THIS CRAP is what we can expect from the masters of disasters ;

Edited March 12, 2008 by MRDETROITMETAL

[PurdueGuy]

um, those are both ugly, and not worth bringing this old, dead thread back to life, IMO.

[MRDETROITMETAL]

um, those are both ugly, and not worth bringing this old, dead thread back to life, IMO.

...It is always worth thrashing Toyota One more time !!!...& yes they are ALL ugly as sin.